Yet, how many women bother to vote today? Too few. Too few men also use this right. Yet there were men who, even before the suffragettes, had had to fight for the right to vote. Before the Great Reform Act of 1832, members of parliament were chosen by the landed aristocrats and the propertied middle classes. Universal suffrage for men was not realised until 1918; for women, it did not come until 1928.

So, the right to vote was fought for, and everyone over the age of 18 in the UK is able to choose their representative for minor and important matters of state. Do they? Do they, hell. We have the most feeble of democracies because people do not bother exercising their right to vote. A disappointing number of eligible Britons turned up to vote for their MEPs this spring, and those who don't vote are often those who whine the most about our involvement with Europe.

There is a cure for this lamentable sickness in our so-called democracy. The cure is proportional representation. This will ensure that more people have a broader choice of members of parliament than they have now.

There is more than one form of proportional representation. Several people could stand in one constituency and the count would show what proportion of members each party could have in the House of Commons. When you can vote and put several candidates in order of preference, there will be a much more interesting and worthwhile turnout for every election there is. Until people do decide to exercise their right to vote, we are kidding ourselves if we say we are a democracy. Only electoral reform can now break the cycle of disillusionment and cynicism people have about politics and politicians, and breathe life back into our democracy.